Author Notes:
This is the sequel to Dreamwalker, the first story in my Baby Sister series. Please check out that story before you start this one, or you might be a wee bit confused. :)
This story is AU, but it will be canon couples...mostly. The timeline follows book two of the Twilight Series, New Moon, albeit loosely. I tried to stay fairly true to the major events in Twilight, but from here on out, things are going to start shifting as Leia takes on a more active role in Bella's life.
Disclaimer: The Twilight Series belongs to Stephanie Meyer. I'm only borrowing her universe for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers. No copyright infringment is intended, no profit will be made off of this story. I do so solemnly swear to return the characters I borrowed. However, the character of Leia Cullen is my very much a child of my own imagination, so I'll be keeping her. Her brothers would be very irritated if someone decided to steal her from me. So mitts off.
Warning: Lots of borrowed dialogue from New Moon here. Until Leia decides to interfere, the timeline/plot won't change much.
*****
I snarled softly at Alice and whirled out of the house. I ran as quickly as I could, which was pretty fast. I had several paths from the house memorized. Granted there was an occasional branch or rock or fallen tree that changed the course, but I had learned how to tumble over them and keep moving without missing a beat. I had spent a lot of time this summer training my body to do impossible things. I was no longer the weakest fighter in the family either. I could best both Rosalie and Esme in a fight almost every time and Alice some of the time. Jasper, Carlisle and Emmett I only won a spar on very rarely, and of course against Edward it was impossible. Ah, Edward. The source of my current distress.
It was September, the day after Bella's birthday. When I thought of yesterday, I flinched involuntarily. One little paper cut and Jasper had dropped all pretense of humanity. I hadn't fared much better, but Carlisle had grabbed me around the waist before I could even think to lunge. Perhaps it was just the suddenness of it, intruding on our pleasant evening, that had caused the reactions. I almost felt guilty that I had been able to stop breathing and disappear into my room until the mess had been cleaned up and Edward had taken Bella home. Jasper hadn't found it so easy.
I had known then what would happen. I knew my brother so very well. Edwad would brood and overthink and decide that it was better for us to leave Bella. Safer for her, therefore the right thing to do. What really hurt was the fact that I couldn't disagree with him completely. She would be safer if she didn't hang out with us. Safer if our family didn't love her like we did.
Of course Rosalie was happy, to the point of smugness. She knew Edward well enough to guess his reaction as well. Emmett would get over it fairly quickly, his disappointment, but he would always miss her. Jasper would never stop blaming himself for driving Edward to this decision. And then there was Alice and me. We would grieve the loss of a dear friend. But all of that would pale in comparison to what this would do to Edward.
I found myself perched in a tree miles from the house, in a hollow that I had found back when Edward had left that first day, the day Bella had come to Fork's High and had changed all of our lives. I curled in on myself and tried not to think about what Alice had said. We were leaving tomorrow, all of us. Rosalie and Emmett were going back to Africa and the rest of us were going to Cornell. The rest of us minus Edward. Alice saw him running off by himself, following some trail she couldn't see an end to.
In my heart, I knew that the end of the trail would lead him back to Bella. She was his soul mate and he would not be able to stay away from her long. If I had been laying bets with Jasper and Emmett, I would have given him a year, tops. But the problem was, what damage would be done in that year? How would Bella cope when Edward left her? Edward had always underestimated Bella's love for him, her devotion. He didn't understand it, couldn't pick her thoughts to analyze it, so he placed human limitations on her feelings. Wouldn't she recover after a while, forget him and move on to a new, safer love?
"Ask Alice if she would ever leave Jasper, ask Esme if she could ever walk away from Carlisle." I had told him to do that once, when he'd been snarling over one of the boys in Bella's life. He always expected her to see what he saw, that Mike Newton or Jacob Black would be better for her. Honestly, Bella was past the ability to take that road, even if she could look down it and wish for a normal life. And it was all his fault, for being so very Edward. This summer had been so perfect. My brother had shown Bella the best sides of himself. The brilliant, loving, gentle musician with a dry sense of humor. But now the darker sides of Edward were firmly dominant. He was the guilty, brooding martyr.
Edward had once told me, when Bella was still recovering from our run in with James, that he would not outlive Bella for long. He had been apologizing to me, knowing that he was going to leave me soon. I hadn't been concerned at the time. Bella was resolute about becoming a vampire and Alice had still seen that as a firm future for Bella at the time. I had figured Edward would be able to hold out for a few years but eventually he would give in.
Now, Alice couldn't see much of Bella's future. I had watched her try a few times this evening and she had been disturbed, even frightened by some of what she'd seen. But not frightened enough that she wouldn't leave like Edward demanded. No, we were all going to leave, even if some of us would be kicking and screaming all the way to the airport. It was the only rebellion I would be allowed, for now.
Three months later
I lamented the fact that it had taken this long to plan my escape, plan it perfectly so that not even a tracker like James could follow me. My family, especially Alice, had always expected me to be the one to break the promises Carlisle and Alice had made for all of us. We were all supposed to pretend that Forks didn't exist. It was such a good thing that Edward wasn't around anymore and that Alice had gotten complacent about watching my futures. Or maybe she just didn't care anymore. Alice was hurting as much as I was. But Alice had a distraction. She was tracking down her human past.
The letter I had left for Carlisle and Esme had been brief. I was going to do some traveling on my own, see the world. They would be disappointed and Esme would worry herself sick, but I had little choice. Bella needed me. I had done a fairly good job of pretending to settle in New York. I had refused to go to high school again, instead throwing myself into dancing. I had three full length ballets choreographed to Edward's music.
As I stepped off the plane in Seattle, I smiled. I had flown around the world in the last two days. It was a good thing vampires didn't sleep or the jet lag would have been hell. I had only a backpack. I hadn't trusted a suitcase to follow me through all my plane changes. I had left a trunk of clothes at the house when we'd left, knowing even then that I would come back here soon.
I waited until sundown to hail a cab. It had been a sunny day. I was going to miss Alice's dead on weather predictions. I had the cab driver drop me in Hoquiam and I ran the rest of the way to the house. It was dark, but then the electricity wasn't on. Neither was the water, but I had the river if I needed a bath. My dance studio room was bare except for my couch and the trunk of clothes. I didn't bother to change out of my clothes. What was the point? I wasn't here to socialize. I was here to check on Bella.
I had hunted on the run from Hoquiam, so I didn't hesitate before running to Forks. It was so good to be back here. It wasn't home. No, home was where my family was. But my family was scattered to the four winds, so I had decided to come where I could do the most good. A small, dark voice in the back of my mind asked me what I would do if Edward was right and Bella was able to move on without him, but I rolled my eyes at it. I started in a tree a mile from the Swan home, just perching there and listening. I heard nothing of interest over Charlie's snores. I moved closer, to the trees just behind the house.
Bella had always talked in her sleep, had always been restless. I had watched her sleep enough times to know this. She was tossing now. I heard the restless stir of skin against her bedspread, could even smell the sweat beading on her forehead. Her heart was thudding slowly, gradually speeding up as if what she dreamed was escalating. When she woke screaming, I found myself all the way to her window before I remembered myself. I flitted onto the roof and gripped the eave as hard as I could without ripping through the fragile wood and shingle.
I waited for Charlie to come to Bella. His snores had stopped. But he just sighed heartbrokenly and turned over, pulling a pillow over his head if I interpreted the sounds correctly. I knew how much Charlie loved Bella and that blood curdling scream, the whimpers coming from her room, though muffled by the pillow now, had to caused him grief. But beyond the initial speed up of his heart when he'd woken, he didn't seem frightened now. Did this happen enough that he was resigned to it now?
Well, at least she's alive, I thought to myself wryly. I heard her get up, obviously too disturbed to go back to sleep. I thought it might be around five thirty now. She trudged downstairs and began banging in the kitchen. Charlie managed to doze for another half hour before he too moved down to the kitchen. I let go of the eave now, waiting for my first chance to see Bella.
It didn't look so bad at first glance. She was cooking eggs and bacon for Charlie, turned towards the stove. I lost the view when Charlie sat and ducked his head into the paper. It wasn't until she very carefully placed his breakfast in front of him that I saw her again. The careful blank expression, the empty eyes and the dark circles under her eyes were all terrible. The gentle but distracted way she asked Charlie what he wanted to drink made me wince.
I shadowed Bella all day, getting as close to her as I could without alerting anyone human that I was lurking in the forested edges around town. It was actually hard to keep track of her visually. No one looked at her anymore, unlike before we'd left. Bella had always been the center of someone's focus, if only because she was the freak that sat with the Cullen's. Now I had to bounce around looking for someone that was looking at something near Bella to see her. Teachers were a good bet. They had to look at their classes. But even they avoided looking directly at Bella.
After school, Bella went to work at Newton's Outdoors. I finally got some eyes to see her through. Mike, it seemed, wasn't as reluctant to look at Bella at work. His eyes followed her whenever she was in his visual scope. Her expression never changed beyond the wooden smile she gave customers she was required to interact with. More often than not, Mike would rush to intercept them before she could. I winced. Bella's customer service skills were certainly not in evidence.
Back home, Bella heated leftovers for herself and Charlie and then spread out her homework. Charlie arrived soon after and he paused in the kitchen doorway to look at her, head bent over her Calculus book. She didn't look up at his tentative greeting, just returned it distractedly. I heard Charlie sigh as he took his dinner and went to sit in front of the television. Both of them went to bed after exchanging quiet goodnights a few hours later.
The pattern repeated itself as I watched for two weeks, with minimal change. Bella wasn't coping with Edward's departure. She wasn't dealing with anything in her life beyond caring for Charlie and her schoolwork. I desperately wanted to know if she had been like this since the first day, or if she had grieved at all. I started to wonder if I should let her know I was around, just to see if I could get a reaction out of her. Any reaction would be preferable to this complete apathy. Evidently Charlie agreed with me, because one morning in early January, he pushed her.
"That's it, Bella! I'm sending you home." Charlie's fist came down on the table hard enough to rattle Bella's cereal bowl. She looked up at Charlie as if shocked. Hadn't she heard a word of their stilted conversation about the weather?
"I am home," Bella mumbled this, confused.
"I'm sending you to Renee, to Jacksonville," he clarified.
Charlie watched as Bella's face slowly crumpled with despair. Okay, here was a reaction, one that made my heart ache, but a reaction.
"What did I do?" I flicked vision just long enough to see that Charlie was scowling.
"You didn't do anything. That's the problem. You never do anything."
"You want me to get into trouble?" Bella's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. She looked like someone trying to fight off the fog of sleep so that they could pay attention to something they knew was important.
"Trouble would be better than this… this moping around all the time!"
"I am not moping around."
"Wrong word," he grudgingly conceded. "Moping would be better-that would be doing something. You're just… lifeless, Bella. I think that's the word I want."
I sighed as Charlie found the perfect word for Bella's state of being. Bella's face shifted into a remorseful expression. She was trying, at least, to be an active part of the conversation.
"I'm sorry, Dad." Her apology almost sounded sincere.
"I don't want you to apologize."
I sighed and it was echoed by Bella. "Then tell me what you do want me to do."
"Bella, honey, you're not the first person to go through this kind of thing, you know." I snorted softly. I loved Charlie, but he really had no idea that Bella really was the first of her kind. Surely no other human in the world had ever had such a stubborn, brooding vampire for a soul mate.
"I know that." Bella's response to Charlie was lackluster, obviously an attempt to appease him before the conversation lead into a real discussion.
"Listen, honey. I think that-that maybe you need some help."
"Help?" Bella's brow pulled together in a frown.
He paused, searching for the words again. "When your mother left and took you with her." He inhaled deeply. "Well, that was a really bad time for me."
"I know, Dad," Bella mumbled, her head down as if she couldn't bear to look at Charlie. Perhaps Charlie did understand her pain to a degree. To lose his wife and his beloved daughter, that had to have been a very rough time for him. I found myself longing to go comfort him.
"But I handled it," he continued. "Honey, you're not handling it. I waited, I hoped it would get better. I think we both know it's not getting better."
"I'm fine."
He ignored her muttered response. "Maybe, well, maybe if you talked to someone about it. A professional."
"You want me to see a shrink?" Bella's voice was a bit sharp and I grinned. Charlie had finally gotten her attention.
"Maybe it would help."
"And maybe it wouldn't help one little bit." Her expression flitted from one of dark amusement to one of obstinance. I couldn't help a chuckle at the thought of that couch session.
So, be honest. What do you miss most?
I miss the way my boyfriend sparkles in the sun. Oh, yes, and the fact that he loved me enough to overcome the urge to suck all the blood from my body.
Yeah, that'd be a prime session.
"It's beyond me, Bella. Maybe your mother-"
"Look," Bella said in a flat voice. "I'll go out tonight, if you want. I'll call Jess or Angela."
"That's not what I want," he argued, frustrated. "I don't think I can live through seeing you try harder. I've never seen anyone trying so hard. It hurts to watch."
"I don't understand, Dad. First you're mad because I'm not doing anything, and then you say you don't want me to go out."
"I want you to be happy-no, not even that much. I just want you not to be miserable. I think you'll have a better chance if you get out of Forks."
Bella's eyes came up flashing. I resisted the urge to cheer. Get mad, Bella. I'd take anger over apathy or sadness or nightmares.
"I'm not leaving," she said. She'd better not. It would be hard for me to keep her safe for Edward in Florida. Too much blasted sunshine and wide open spaces. It was impossible to hide in palm trees.
"Why not?" he demanded.
"I'm in my last semester of school-it would screw everything up."
"You're a good student-you'll figure it out."
"I don't want to crowd Mom and Phil."
"Your mother's been dying to have you back."
"Florida is too hot."
Charlie's fist came down on the table again. "We both know what's really going on here, Bella, and it's not good for you." He took a deep breath. "It's been months. No calls, no letters, no contact. You can't keep waiting for him."
Bella glowered at him and I sensed the heat rising in her neck, saw the pink flush through Charlie's eyes on her throat. At some point in my life, that might have excited the monster in me. Now, it just excited me, Leia, Bella's friend.
"I'm not waiting for anything. I don't expect anything," Bella's voice was dead again, speaking words she obviously believed. I wanted to scream at her that he was coming back soon, that he wouldn't be able to keep away. But I didn't know how long Edward could hold off his need for her, if he would come back before Bella descended past the point that she would trust him again.
"Bella-," Charlie began, his voice thick.
"I have to get to school," Bella interrupted, standing up and yanking her untouched breakfast from the table.
"I'll make plans with Jessica," She said as she strapped on her school bag. "Maybe I won't be home for dinner. We'll go to Port Angeles and watch a movie." And she was gone before Charlie could react. Charlie cursed under his breath, but I was grinning. Bella had been jolted out of her apathy.